Quote:
Originally Posted by MariaMaria
Water poisoning is becoming increasingly common in marathons, especially among slower and first-time marathoners. That's people who are out there for five or six hours, so their water problems aren't coming from drinking all at once and in a run that long, they're taking in food/salt as well.
Good point, Maria!
The thing with runners is that they are losing tons of salt through sweat and it's hard to replace that as quick as they are losing it unless they are taking salt pills or drinking only things like Gatorade. I'm not sure about all runners, but the ones I know usually consume things during the race like energy gel, which doesn't have tons of salt.
Not sure...but it seems like the problem exists mainly in runners who are new to marathons (assuming they take a lot longer to run the race) and are also drinking too much water during the race. Here's another article just about marathons and water poisoning:
http://www.waterindustry.org/hyponatremia.htm
It's good to be cautious, but letting a fear of water poisoning keep you from consuming a normal amount of water would be a shame.
I liked this calculator especially because it was taking so many specific things into account, such as your amount of exercise, the dryness of weather in your area, whether you'd be outside, whether you're pregnant, etc. in calculting your water needs for the day.